Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Algeria will increase security at
oil and gas installations after a terrorist attack and military
response left as many as 85 people dead and exposed a growing
threat from al-Qaeda in North Africa.

Authorities said at least 23 hostages died along with 32
militants after the final Jan. 19 Algerian special forces
assault at the Saharan In Amenas facility, operated by BP
Plc, Norway’s Statoil ASA and Algeria’s state-run Sonotrach.
Security forces found about 30 more corpses yesterday, reported
to be Algerian and foreign hostages, though they could not
immediately be identified, according to al-Watan newspaper.

Algeria’s energy minister, Youcef Yousfi, said the nation
has “the necessary means to secure its energy facilities,” the
state-run Algeria Press Service reported. “We are going to
strengthen security and we rely first on our means and
resources.” Foreign forces would not be used, he said.

President Barack Obama and Britain’s Prime Minister David
Cameron said the attack underlined the threats posed by al-Qaeda-linked groups in North Africa following the so-called Arab
Spring uprisings. It came just four months after the U.S.
ambassador to Libya was killed by Islamist gunmen at the
American consulate in Benghazi. The gas plant raid was claimed
by militants of the al-Qaeda-linked al Mulathameen group, who
said their action was inspired by the arrival last week of
French forces seeking to block a jihadist takeover of
neighboring Mali.

Casualty Details

While Algerian authorities have yet to provide a full
account of what took place and who died, some countries have
confirmed casualty details. The dead hostages included six
Filipinos, three Britons, two Romanians, an American and a
Frenchman. Five Norwegians, three U.K. citizens and a U.K.
resident were missing, along with citizens of Japan, Colombia
and Malaysia.

Cameron yesterday compared the threat in terrorist North
Africa to that in Afghanistan and said it would require “years,
even decades” to counter. Britain would use its chairmanship of
the Group of Eight industrialized countries to seek a joint
response, he said.

Survivors gave accounts to newspapers of chaotic and
terrifying scenes from inside the plant. An Algerian engineer
called Tahar told Le Soir d’Algerie newspaper of masked gunmen
dressed in military uniform and of hostages forced to wear
explosives around their necks.

‘Unrelenting’ Battle

Algerian Mohamed Amine Lahmar, a 31-year-old guard, was
executed by gunmen when he refused to open a door in the gas
plant, al Watan reported, while French catering worker,
Alexandre Berceaux, was protected and fed by Algerian colleagues
while he hid under a bed for 40 hours before being rescued by
the army.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said governments
must be “unrelenting” in their battle and acknowledged that
the West should have been more concerned about the flow of arms
across the region following the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization’s role in the downfall of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi.

The ministry said 32 terrorists were involved -- the same
number it said were killed -- and that only three were Algerian.
The attackers wore Libyan military uniforms, Algeria’s privately
run Ennahar television said on its website, citing unidentified
officials. It said the leader of the group had a dark green
uniform used by Libyan oil facility security, while 31 others
were wearing yellowish military uniforms.

Europe’s Gas

Algerian forces freed 107 foreigners and 685 Algerian
workers after the military operation at the gas plant, the
Interior Ministry said in a statement on APS.

The plant supplies about 2 percent of Europe’s gas imports.
Yousfi told APS that Algeria “simply compensated for the lack
of production by producing other fields.”

Algeria’s energy minister, Yousef al Yousefi, visited the
gas site yesterday and told reporters the damage was limited,
according to APS. “Once the damage is assessed, we will replace
the equipment hit” and determine when the plant will resume
operating, he told the news agency. He said workers expect to
re-start equipment within the next two days.

Algerian troops had first attempted a rescue on Jan. 17, a
day after the al Mulathameen terrorists attacked the complex.
The group is headed by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed Algerian
militant.

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said 22 Britons were
freed and have returned home. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg said his country has five citizens it can’t account
for. Statoil Chief Executive Officer Helge Lund said five of the
company’s employees are missing. Three French national survived,
the foreign ministry said.

‘Gravely Concerned’

Seven of 17 employees of the Japanese engineering company
JGC Corp. at the complex were safe and the government will send
a plane to pick them up, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga
said at an early morning press conference. Media reports that
nine had been killed couldn’t be confirmed he said.

BP said in an e-mailed statement that the company is
“gravely concerned” about the four of its 18 employees who
remain missing. Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said one
of two Malaysians unaccounted for is possibly dead.

The Islamist militants struck on Jan. 16. According to a
statement from the Algerian Interior Ministry, the attack began
when gunmen attacked a bus carrying 19 foreigners to the airport
of In Amenas. Gendarmes fought off the assault with the loss of
one of their men and a British passenger.

Attacks Threat

“The priority of preserving lives, the risks linked to the
nature of gas facilities, the configuration of the site, and the
menace that weighed on the hostages made the intervention of the
National Popular Army very complex,” the ministry said.

The group that claimed responsibility for the Algerian
hostage assault warned yesterday of more attacks against any
country backing French military action in Mali, the group said
in a statement published on Mauritania’s private ANI news agency
yesterday.

The attackers included citizens of Algeria, Canada, Mali,
Egypt, Niger and Mauritania, according to Mauritania’s private
ANI news agency, citing an unidentified source in the terror
group. They had demanded that France end its military
intervention in neighboring Mali, which began Jan. 11.

Several hostages reported hearing at least two attackers
speaking fluent North American English.